In honesty there is no limit to what a tweeker will do. I mean, if you are willing to snort, smoke or shoot (needle) something that is often cut with battery acid, are they really worried about the repercussions.
-------------- Original message --------------
After reading these stories and being the victim of having three bikes
stolen in the last year alone, I would say that most folks with
higher-end machines aren't leaving them unlocked...
The place I live in Beaverton has kids bikes left out all the time,
unlocked..
The theft last week involved the perps cutting my Kryptonite lock; I'm
not sure what else to do except lock my stuff in the house. I don't
leave my gear unlocked; and don't leave my gear on top of my roof-rack
overnight, even locked down.
I'll do that going fwd; but the absolute last thing I want is the
tweaker who spotted the bike trying to come into my place.
Obviously in my case someone saw me come in with the bike Tuesday, and
then took it last Wednesday night. If tweakers are that desperate I
wonder if they'd do something even more desperate.
-----Original Message-----
From: Luciano bailey [mailto:ride-@hotmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, October 25, 2005 10:37 AM
To: markjgi-@yahoo.com; ob-@topica.com
Subject: RE: [OBRA Chat] Bike thieves
Once and for all most of these bikes do not leave the area they end up
in some dealers garage or attic until they cool down or are parted out(
I have had people try to sell me bikes stolen years ago). This is not a
sophisticated ring mainly drug users who use your ride as one way
transpo to the drug spot. The moral of the story make it as difficult as
possible to steal in the first place. As stated in Marks comments take a
picture know your serial numbers and lock your bikes even in the garage.
Nothing will discourage a thief more than the thought of having to break
locks to get a bike there is usally an easier target. This forum has
created the biggest aid in recovery and cutting down theft
communication, the sooner a community is on the lookout the better the
chances of spotting a bike.
From: markjgi-@yahoo.com
Reply-To: markjgi-@yahoo.com
To: ob-@topica.com
Subject: [OBRA Chat] Bike thieves
Date: Tue, 25 Oct 2005 10:18:42 -0700 (PDT)
I've been reading this thread for a while.
two stories: my three bikes, and recovering someone else's bike.
3 years ago, someone broke into my garage and stole 3 bikes. They knew
which bikes to take.
two surfaced, one did not.
a Ti Mercxk surfaced a few weeks later, b/c an OBRA member had a friend
who was a recovered drug user (I think), the recovering drug user's
former dealer had the bike and for $500 cash I got the bike back.
The second bike was my custom track bike. It surfaced on E-bay. The
person selling it has a business out of his garage. He goes to storage
units and when someone doesn't pay the bills he buys the contents and
sells them on e-bay. The guy who built my custom track bike saw it and
contacted the seller, and I headed over to his house with some cash and
a friend who is a black belt in kung fu, and for cash got that bike
back.
the third was a nice custom mountain bike which I figure the thief kept
to ride as the easiest of the three to use.
Second story, maybe 5 years ago, I saw a guy on a nice Litespeed, but
it was clear he was jusy a guy riding to his day labor job. I said to
him "nice bike" , he said thanks, I asked if he wanted to sell it. we
haggled and he then sold it to me for I think $100. I knew it wasn't
his, and I knew OBRA was a small enough community that the owner could
be found.
Sure engouh by that afternoon, we had figured out the owner and the
bike was returned to that person.
now you can stop reading, but here are the longer
details:
from my theft:
being an above board guy, I had homeowners insurance, and knew the
serial #s of all my bikes, and had pictures of them too!
police took police report. homeowners paid me.
So when the bikes were located, technically they belonged to my
homeowners insurance co, not me.
Each time a bike surfaced the polcie were no help, and homeowners
didn't really want to lay out $$ to get the bike back, so each time I
bought my bikes back with the blessing of the ins. co and the knowledge
of the police. Ins Co even sent me nice letters stating that since I
recovered the bikes and had to pay for them, they were mine to keep.
From the other theft:
I paid the guy who had the bike with a CHECK (while at his
workplace!). so I could have stopped payment, but it was clear to me
that the guy wasn't the one who stole it, but was just using it to get
around. Also with his name, if the police were interested, it was easy
enough to go talk to him, and maybe work their way up that food chain,
but again no interest.
So none of those 4 bikes left portland.
Mark
--- Eric Kytola wrote:
I couldn't help but thinking about bike thieves last night. But
mostly I had questions.
People were thinking our bikes get jacked and sent to another city
where people bought our hot bikes. But I asked myself "how many
people do I know that have bought a hot bike?" I couldn't think of
anyone of the people I have ridden with who I thought might be
riding a hot bike (wether they know it or not). So then I have to
ask "well who would buy a hot $3,000 bike". I can't think of a
substantial group of people who would buy stolen $3,000 bikes. I
have a hard time thinking people would feel comfortable buying a
used $3,000 bike anyway.
So I couldn't think
of anywhere or anyone who would buy our stolen bikes.
Then I recalled a few episodes of Cops I had seen.
The cops were busting
people who were stealing copper wire to sell to scrap yards. I
started wondering....maybe those bike thieves are recycling all the
parts on the bikes to scrap yards. You might think I am crazy but I
have 2 points of reference. My younger brother is a cyclist and he
is also schizophrenic.
He had a suspension fork that he thought was junk and unsafe to sell
(which it wasn't) so he brought it to the metal recycler and got
5.00.
he also thought he broke a specialized big hit last year. He took
that in and got 8.00. I have also been forunate enough to have a few
close friends that destroyed their lives being meth heads.
Those people aren't
rational or logical. They do stuff like tear all the wiring out of
their cars so they can re-wire because it will run better.
I have seen them
steal skateboards to sell at 2nd hand stores. I have seen them rip
video games off from friends to sell. The point is they aren't
smart. They find something that works and makes them a few bucks and
stick with it.
They aren't looking to sit on a 3,000 bike and sell it 9 days later
on e-bay. They aren't going to tear bikes apart and sell them for
parts on e-bay. It takes too long to get the money! They need to get
high NOW!
Tweakers can't even stand still, there is no way they will take the
time to market stuff.
I am curious to know how many (if any) bike parts are rolling
through the metal recycle yards in PDX?
-----Original Message-----
From: scott klinger
[mailto:a1234bi-@yahoo.com]
Sent: Monday, October 24, 2005 8:07 PM
To: ob-@topica.com
Subject: RE: [OBRA Chat] Bike thieves
Well, without giving too much away, as of right now its all line of
sight stuff. Not very high tech. I've asked about some other ways,
because obviously line of sight doesn't work so
well. I mentioned
Lojack, but I guess there is a lot of issues with it right now, i.e.
no power source. After reading some of the ideas on the board, I
have to admit, I would not want to piss off the bike riders in this
city, I like
the ideas of U-locking someone to a fixed object, and I really liked
the
idea of radiating bike parts, that was good. You don't even need to
take them to OSU, just run over to Reed and do it there.
shane.-@comcast.net wrote:
Scott-
Does the police force use any RF technology to
track the bikes once
stolen, or is it all line of site (eyesight) type
work?
-------------- Original message --------------
I had to respond to the bike thieves stuff. I'm
a Portland Officer
working out of Southeast Precinct, the hotbed of
stolen bikes in
Portland. I have to say that the bikes that are
being stolen here
are
not staying here. Where they are going, I'd love
to know, but they
aren't going into the second hand stores to be
re-sold. All of us
out
in OBRA land would be looking out for them. I
search Ebay everyday
on
my own, and I haven't found where they disappear
to. If anyone has
any
idea where the bikes go, or any ideas on who is
ripping them off,
feel
free to let me know. I'd love to work on some
bike thieves, I hate
them
as much as anyone reading this.
And by the way, some of my fellow officers were
doing a bike sting
on
Hawthorne a couple weeks ago and a dirtbag,
(sorry, not a p.c. term
"earthsack") stole our bait bike. And he got
away. Now that I'm done
laughing at my fellow officers, if anyone spots
a black Cannondale
Scapel mountain bike, freshly purchased from
River City, we'd love
to
have it back. Yes, the cops got their bike
ripped off right from
underneath their nose, go ahead and laugh. MAKE
SURE YOU HAVE YOUR
SERIAL NUMBER HANDY! Scott
Long, Steve wrote:
I'm all for going "Clown" on them... ;-)
________________________________
From: Erin Playman
[mailto:erinpl-@yahoo.com]
Sent: Monday, October 24, 2005 2:04 PM
To: OBRA
Subject: RE: [OBRA Chat] Bike thieves
If it makes you feel any better, I work for a
public defender and
have
gotten cases where PPB sets up stings for bike
thieves. They put
out a
very expensive bike (usually full susp. mtb,
they have a little
fleet of
their sting bikes) and get the person who
takes it. Some of their
very
expensive bikes solicit felonies when stolen.
They aren't doing the clown thing, however,
and should definately
take
that into consideration.
"Keith A. Prior" wrote:
Bike thieves are scum of the Earth!
I am not really sold on the Death Penalty but
nothing burns me
more than bike thieves and I feel that they
should be gassed!!
If I wasn't someone's daddy I'd get a few fed
up people together
who had their bikes lifted
and set up a bike 'sting' to tempt a thief.
When the punk goes
riding off with the bike we come out of hiding
dressed as clowns in makeup riding cruisers
and do what the
Italians did to Dave Stoller in Breaking Away!
When the cops ask him who did this to him as
he lays on the
=== message truncated ===
Mark J. Ginsberg
Attorney At Law
621 SW Morrison St., Ste. 900
Portland, OR 97204
(503) 542-3000
Fax (503) 227-2530
markjgi-@yahoo.com
www.bikesafetylaw.com
__________________________________
Yahoo! FareChase: Search multiple travel sites in one click.
http://farechase.yahoo.com
_________________________________________________________________
FREE pop-up blocking with the new MSN Toolbar - get it now!
http://toolbar.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200415ave/direct/01/
To respond to the whole group send to ob-@topica.com.
To respond to the list manager send to cmur-@obra.org To unsubscribe
send to obra-uns-@topica.com
To respond to the whole group send to ob-@topica.com.
To respond to the list manager send to cmur-@obra.org
To unsubscribe send to obra-uns-@topica.com